Designing this seafront villa on France’s Cote d’Azur was a family affair for the Prouvé brothers, who engineered the prefab Villa Dollander using their innovative industrial building techniques.
The three-bedroom French holiday home was designed for the Dollander family and completed in 1951 in Lavandou, overlooking Saint Clair beach. It was one of the Prouve brother’s most successful residential experiments, blending built and natural environments via glass-fronted volumes that open onto 2,460 sq m of Mediterranean gardens and trees.
A concrete slab supports the 100 sq m home: a structural central beam in folded sheet metal is supported by porticoes, while exterior posts are fabricated from steel tubes. Along with interior panels, the elements were machined in Maxéville before being assembled on-site by Jean Prouvé to Henri’s design.
The Cote d’Azur property is remarkably intact and was designated a historical monument in 1991. Villa Dollander is now for sale with Côte d’Azur Sotheby’s International Realty for €6.36m and includes a second 85 sq m guest house with three further bedrooms.
Glass panes offer views through the home to the seafront, while glass portholes play with light inside the midcentury modern interiors.
Take a tour of the home in the gallery.